People are celebrating in Libya in response to the news that Muammar el – Qaddafi is dead. While the end of Qaddafi’s forty – two year dictatorship should be celebrated, the precedent set by NATO’s intervention should not. Atrocities were prevented and the country has been freed from Qaddafi’s iron clad rule, but the Security […]
Girls prepare message for G20 leaders Girls representing the G20 countries and the African Union have gathered for a G(irls) 20 Summit to highlight efforts to end child marriage and discuss other issues that affect young women around the world. Participants will prepare a communiqué on the issue to be delivered to policymakers at the […]
As October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and we are seeking to bring much needed awareness to abuse and partner violence in the home, we must also bring attention to the smallest victims of domestic violence. It is estimated that more than 3.3 million children are exposed to physical and verbal spousal abuse each year. […]
Easy conversion of biomass to oil for transportation fuels and other purposes? It’s a fine thing, particularly if you are using waste products like forest or agricultural wastes, or garbage. I have two caveats, though: (1) Why not make the biomass into biochar? It does more good than just providing fuel. It also provides […]
The International Energy Agency’s chief economist, Fatih Birol, stated yesterday that the oil industry needs about $38 trillion in investment to meet global demand for energy through 2035. He was speaking at a two-day ministers’ meeting foreshadowing the contents of the World Energy Outlook, due out November 9. Breaking the figure down, $10.0 trillion is […]
October is a month of awareness, however as I mentioned in yesterday’s post Bullying Prevention Month, there are a number of awareness days that affect children, which have fallen in the shadows this month. Therefore please see the excerpt from my post for the Examiner below: October is a month of awareness, however despite having the month be designated […]
If you are like me, you find yourself outraged at least once every couple weeks…ok maybe once a week…ok maybe more often than you wish at uninformed remarks made by public figures on issues you care about. Well, Rush Limbaugh’s comments last Friday takes the cake. Apparently, Rush Limbaugh believes the brutal African militia – […]
October seems to be the month of awareness, most noticeably, it is currently Breast Cancer Awareness Month. When you look around, all you seem to see is pink for Breast Cancer, however, it is not October’s only worthy cause. This week I will bring you a few causes that have designated October their awareness month. […]
“Humanity is acquiring all the right technology for all the wrong reasons” ~ R. Buckminster Fuller Much has been made about how the late technology giant Steve Job “changed our lives”. The Discovery Channel, not to be outdone by all the media hoopla surrounding his death, will air a one-hour documentary on Sunday 30 October […]
It’s called a ‘murder-for-hire’ sting, a standard law enforcement ploy designed to help the criminal find the very worst in his nature and act on it. But sting operations come with their own risks as well as rewards—and attorneys know that ‘entrapment’ can be a strong defense. . .
Informants are like sharks, scouring the underworld for opportunities and targets the feds can use as springboards to career-making cases. It’s the informant’s job to find two sticks (agent and opportunity), to rub them together vigorously, and to blow gently on the sparks of criminal enterprise.
Think about this as well….the ‘downpayment’ for the ‘hit,’ the100k wired to the US undercover bank account is enough to trigger a case for conspiracy, but it still doesn’t prove that the Iranian government was driving the bus. To do that, US authorities must establish a link between the owner of the account in the UAE — or the owner/s of an account held by an international financial institution with correspondent branches/banks around the world — and the government of Iran.
This is a critical point–one that could defuse the Obama Administration’s claim that ‘senior officials at the highest levels of the Iranian government’ were tied to the assassination plot and challenge the call of senior US officials for alterations to current foreign policy, in the US and abroad, toward Iran. If US authorities cannot prove that this was something more than a plot formulated by a small group of non-state actors, the President, the Secretary of State, DEA and the FBI have some explaining to do. . .
World Food Day 2011 will be commemorated on Sunday, October 16th, starting two weeks of programs and events focusing attention on the effect that volatile swings in food prices are affecting the poor. World Food Day was originally started to celebrate the founding of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and has since […]
Earlier this month, a study published in The Lancet discussed findings that hormonal contraceptives doubled the risk of HIV infection and transmission. The study examined 3,790 sero-discordant heterosexual couples (meaning that one of the two has HIV) in seven African countries. Some of the women were using hormonal contraceptives, mostly injectable (such as Depo-Provera) but […]
Earlier this week, the U.N. Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) published a highly critical report alleging that Afghan security forces have engaged in “systematic torture” in prisons and detention facilities. According to interviews with more than 300 suspects held in these facilities, Afghan security forces engaged in beatings, sexual assault and other acts that might constitute […]
Over the last month I’ve participated in two Department of Defense sponsored Bloggers roundtable on Afghanistan and one sponsored by the Army on the role and importance of our forces in Europe to our National Security policy. What I like about these forums is it gives me an opportunity to hear views about important topics […]
Operation Unified Protector, NATO’s mission in Libya, is winding down. Claiming victory, the Obama administration is chiding those who opposed U.S. involvement. While NATO has succeeded in preventing Muammar Qadhafi from further targeting civilians, the mission has exposed a significant alliance weakness: the unfair sharing of the burden for common defense among NATO members. In […]